U.S. double-think exposed at World Court hearing

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The U.S. government has been tried in absentia and found guilty. On June 27, the International Court of Justice (World Court) ruled the United States was violating international law by a series of acts of aggression against Nicaragua.

The Court listed specific acts-such as supporting the contras, mining Nicaraguan harbors, and publishing a manual of terrorist techniques—as a breach of the obligations under international law not to intervene in the affairs of another state.

The Court declared that the United States must immediately cease and refrain from all such acts. Furthermore, the United States is under obligation to make financial reparations.

The Reagan administration did not deny the charges, nor did it attempt to justify its actions. It said, in effect, it was none of the World Court's business what the United States was doing to Nicaragua. Of course this blunt rejection was couched in the softer language of diplomacy and international legalese.

The U.S. government assembled a battery of eminent jurists to scour the international law books for precedents and technicalities. Straining logic, U.S. jurists argued that Nicaragua had appealed to the United Nations for help, so it could not go to the World Court as well. They also maintained that when one party to a dispute DOES THE DEFENDANT HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY. ..?

WORLD COURT

objects, the World Court loses all power of adjudication.

Finally, the lawyers for the United States threw a last desperate argument. They claimed that "adjudication is inappropriate and would be extremely prejudicial to the existing dispute settlement process." The role of murder and pillage by the contras in the "settlement process" was not mentioned. Nor did Reagan's lawyers mention an earlier appearance of the United +119/86.944 08M808 UNIVERSAs PRESS SIND.

AUTH NICAPAGUA ... THAT CAN BE PRINIED IN THE RECORD?

States before the World Court.

At the time of the hostage crisis with Iran in 1979, the United States gave a completely opposite point of view. Despite Iran's decision to boycott the World Court, President Carter's lawyers cited chapter and verse to convince the Court that it should hear the case.

Does the World Court have jurisdiction? Yes, of course, the Americans argued. In fact, "it is not necessary for a state RONNIE! conclusively that the Court has jurisdiction."

They then made their case even stronger, arguing, "The Court's jurisdiction is obligatory where the parties have not resorted to other means of settlement."

What about the United Nations having prior jurisdiction? Carter's lawyers argued, "The fact that one of the political organs of the United Nations is dealing with a particular dispute does not militate against the Court's taking action on those aspects of the same dispute which fall within its jurisdiction."

Finally, the Americans assumed a lofty moral tone. Even if Iran had reservations about the Court's jurisdiction, they argued, "There is no reason why, if Iran had any defense to make in this proceeding, it should not have appeared here to make it."

This argument, presented in 1979, did not impel the Reagan administration to appear with its defense against Nicaragua's charges in 1986. And the World Court had no power to force its appearance.

The World Court is impotent because the major powers want it that way. When they set up the second World Court in 1946 (the first one died in 1945 with the League of Nations), the major states excused themselves from its compulsory juris -diction. They also denied the Court any power to enforce its verdicts. No major power today is ready to yield sovereignty to a world government.

While the verdict cannot be enforced, the World Court's ruling has given a moral victory to Nicaragua. The U.S. government's aggression is recorded for all the world to see. The decision has given one more tool to the antiwar movement in its campaign to reverse the U.S. govern -ment's criminal policies.

DARN!.. ...WHY CAN'T

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